Every day, the Instawork platform handles thousands of transactions involving businesses and hourly professionals, generating a huge amount of data on hourly pay as well as other aspects of the labor market. This report summarizes some of the major trends in demographics, roles, and worker constraints in regions across the United States.
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The data are also compiled into the Instawork Pay Signal Index (PSI) and indexed trends in hourly pay. Because businesses can book shifts in advance on the Instawork platform, the metrics include forward-looking data for the current month as well. Please refer to the appendix for explanations of the methods behind each metric.
Starting this month, we are presenting reorganized, rebalanced, and re-indexed statistics with July 2022 as their base, for greater ease of use.
The labor market as a whole looked hotter in February, with increases in pay predominating and other indicators also showing signs of strength. In March we expect these factors to moderate slightly:
Our in-app surveys track Pros' labor market situations on a monthly basis. For details on methods and questionnaires, please see the Methodological Appendix below.
Pros had an easier time finding the full- and part-time jobs they wanted in February, the second straight month for which this was true. This suggests a stronger labor market, with more opportunities for permanent employment:
Pros still wanted to work shifts via the Instawork platform, however. As our Pro network ballooned to roughly 6 million workers, the difference between Pros looking for shifts and those able to work shifts rose above 10% for the first time since we started tracking these data.
Also for the second straight month, Pros had an easier time finding more than 40 hours of work per week in January. There was increasing difficulty for Pros who wanted to work 30 hours or fewer, perhaps an indication that employers are prioritizing full-time work:
In January we also asked Pros about their experience of remote work. Many were already working remotely, including about 1 in 6 doing so via an app. More than half said they hadn't worked remotely but wanted to, and only 5% had no interest at all:
These results suggest that preferences for remote work and overall flexibility are not unique to highly paid knowledge workers. In-person hourly workers who have been left out of the remote work revolution are still eager to participate.
The gender balance on the Instawork platform was steady in February, but the share of Pros who identified as Hispanic/Latino continued to rise, reaching an all-time high:
This change has corresponded to a surge in sign-ups among Spanish speakers, who accounted for 8% of new Pros in February, the highest figure since May 2018.
After a long, steep uphill climb during the past few years, hourly pay in food service and hospitality has stabilized over the past several months. Slightly more businesses are poised to lower pay in March, as in the previous three months:
Hourly pay rates for bartenders rose in February but are expected to drop again in March, while other front-of-house roles saw small declines in pay and look to be stable in March:
